Would you bet your life on it?

Something that's been on my mind lately... 

American's love diets and "lifestyle" plans.  Low carb, high carb, primal, paleo, no gluten, high fat, intermittent fasting.  There are so many opinions, bits of pseudo science and books out there it's become a (grim) hobby for me to keep up with them. 

The Next Great Thing

One of the latest iterations of "the next great thing" is the HCG diet.  Here's how it works. 

1.  You get weekly injections of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), a hormone created by the placenta in a pregnant woman in order to signal the hypothalamus to mobilize fat stores. 

2.  You eat a 500 calorie a day diet.  

Does #1 do anything? Honestly, it's irrelevant because #2 is both unsustainable and dangerous.  If you're fat enough to need this diet, your fat enough to need behavior modification.  A quick fix isn't that. 

Studying China

I know someone else that is convinced, after having read "The China Study" that consuming anything outside of a vegan diet is poison, and that consuming a vegan diet is all that is necessary to solve all your health problems. 

Lets put the logical fallacies present in that statement aside for just a moment.  This person doesn't have the discipline to sustain a completely plant based diet.  They try and fail over and over, and the weight problem that will eventually kill them remains. 

There are some great reasons to adopt a vegan diet.  Food intolerances, convictions regarding the treatment of animals, or even the environmental issues around animal consumption are great reasons... And while most vegans eat very healthy, eating healthy and eating vegan aren't the same. 

There is junk food for every eating pattern.

Betting Your Life On It

I'm not going to log my food, thats way to extreme!

I'm not going to exercise every day, thats way to extreme!

I hear stuff like this all the time.  And you know, for someone that can manage their weight and be healthy, maybe food logging and daily exercise is more than they need. 

But I have to ask...  Is it more extreme than injecting yourself with unstudied hormones and subjecting yourself to a starvation diet?   Is it more extreme than the vegan diet you can't stick with?  Can you do the thing that you are doing right now for the rest of your life and be healthy, not just as a diet but as a lifestyle change  Are you sure?  Are you so sure, that you're willing to bet your life on it?